Geffroy et a l.[1] proposed that naturebased tourism reduces the fearfulness and antipredator behavior of animals, leading towards a boldness syndrome that elevates natural predation rates and could trigger cascading effects on populations and communities. We agree with the framework, hypotheses, and future research needs proposed in[1], but they apply strictly to nonthreatening human–wildlife interactions. However, naturebased tourism is oftenconsumptive, where wild-living animals are chased, stressed, and eventually harvested in activities such as recreational fishing and hunting. No thr eatening forms of human use of animals were elaborated i n [1]. Asacompl emen tary pers pective, we here propose that consumptive nature-based tourism might lead to opposite behavioral outcomes to those pr oposedin[1] byinduci ngatimidity, rather than a boldness, syndrome ( Figure 1).

Human exploitation of wild-living animals creates a ‘landscape of fear’[2, 3]. A com-mo nly reported pla st ic behavioral response of animals to human-induced predation risk involves increased antipredator behavior and heightened timidity, charac terized by a greater use of refuges and reduced activity [2–8]. For such effects to happen, the experience of nonlethal, yet threatening stimuli caused by humans are often sufficient. For example, catch-and-release angling is increasingly co mmon in tourism-based fishing operations. Being hooked, physiologically stressed, and eventually released promotes refuge-seeking behaviors that reduce vulnerability to fishing, which may also affect nonhooked conspecifics through social learning [8, 9]. In addition to plastic effects within the behavioral reac-tion norm, lethal consumptive tourism may also cause evolutionary responses in a range of life-history and behavioural traits that collectively increase the average timidity levels of surviving individuals [3, 6, 7, 10–12]. For example, bold, explor-ative, aggressive, and active behavioral types (aka ‘personalities’) within exploited wildlife populations are often selectively har vested[3, 7, 10–12]. The positive heri-tability characterizing most personality traits in turn could facilitate an evolution ary (i. e., genetic) response of timidity-related beh aviors[6, 7, 12]. Increased timidity due to learning and/or evolutionary adaptation can occur in both predator and prey popula tions when they are exposed to threatening stimuli by recreational fishers or hun ters. The net result for a prey species sh ould generally involve a reduction, rather than an increase [1], in natur al mor tality risk because either the prey be comes shyer when they are exploited or it benefits from an increased timidity of the exploited predator, thereby being